On the Water!

On the Water!

Scientist:

Carrie Jennings

Glacial Geologist

Minnesota Geological Survey

Date: October 28^th. 2009

Location:

Hidden Falls to Lilydale

When I first signed up for this project, I thought, well I need to get ON the river, not just BY it. I had a secret wish as well…I had lived by the third longest river for seven years and never paddled on it. Luckily Carrie offered to take me on a paddle and like many times during this experience I was very giddy.

Turns out the river is oddly named…It was actually created by the draining of glacial lake Agassiz which created the River Warren which is called the Minnesota River now. So the Mississippi is really a tributary of the Minnesota that leads to some speculation. Is it because Mississippi has a nice tempo when one spells it out? Or the river was explored from the south up?

What else do I not know about my watery neighbor?

I also heard about huge waterfalls, and crushed beavers (and megabeavers.) The idea that this valley was created very suddenly, rather then slowly seems odd. The amount of water that rushed out of the lake is staggering, actually quite impossible to grasp.

We stopped by a waterfall on the side. As the River Warren ripped through the landscape, it crossed smaller streams that now just dump into the Mississippi. In the bluffs there is a grand Keyhole shaped cave. Carrie points out the moss and tells me another story. As the water exits the bluff it is laden with minerals. The moss on the falls help precipitate out these minerals and turn it to rock. She found a chunk that was fallen to show me. It is actually quite light and looks like moss. On her suggestion I take the rock and am quite found of it. This living green building the bluffs out.

I was again hearing a similar problem that John Schade talked about. Water is getting to the river too quickly. Not only does this bring the nitrogen problem, but the sediment is increased as well...Maybe we need those megabeavers again.

Pointing out some particularly ugly apartment buildings she stated that that area was not settled early because of the lack of soil, impossible to create basements. Now we are stuck with these buildings that stick out on the cliffs.

Finally I was on the water, looking at erosion on banks and seeing differences in the soil. I saw the dog park from the water…

Then it struck me. I had seen the same wonder that I had seen in both Gary and John’s eyes. Carrie was caught, pointing out fossils, explaining her passion. There of course was the similarity, but something was coming forth. She was searching out something, a story that was apart from her. She was discovering, searching, and teaching something that was completely apart from her. I imagined her grabbing onto a whale and riding it, in that way she was along for the ride. It seemed very freeing.

I was left with two words. Discovery and Creation

Do Artists create and Scientists discover? That seemed way too simplified, and I know Artists who discover and Scientists that create. But somewhere in these thoughts of objective and subject, discovery and creation, internal and external, stands a captivating thought.

Paddling needs to happen more in my life.